Battle of Whampoa

View of Whampoa Island from Dane's Island

Date	2 March 1841
Location	Whampoa Island, Guangdong, China Coordinates: 23°5′46″N 113°23′50″E / 23.09611°N 113.39722°E / 23.09611; 113.39722
Result	British victory

Belligerents

United Kingdom

British East India Company

Qing China

Commanders and leaders

James Bremer
Edward Belcher

Unknown

Strength

4 ships

250 troops
25 guns

Casualties and losses

1 killed

15–20 killed

First Opium War
Kowloon 1st Chuenpi 1st Chusan Barrier 2nd Chuenpi Bogue First Bar Whampoa Broadway 1st Canton 2nd Canton Sanyuanli Amoy Nerbudda 2nd Chusan Chinhai Ningpo Tzeki Chapu Woosung Chinkiang

The Battle of Whampoa was fought between British and Chinese forces at Whampoa Island (modern-day Pazhou Island) on the Pearl River near the city of Canton (Guangzhou), Guangdong, China, on 2 March 1841 during the First Opium War.^[1]

Battle

On 2 March 1841, Commodore James Bremer, commander-in-chief of British forces, sent Capt. Edward Belcher of the Sulphur to reconnoitre the Junk River.^{[lower-alpha 1]} The ship was towed by three of the Wellesley's boats under Lt. Richard Symonds. As they approached the northeast end of Whampoa Island, a Chinese battery of about 25 guns, which were masked by thick tree branches, opened fire on the ships.^[1]^[3] Lt. Symonds immediately cut the tow line, the boats sailed towards the shore and the boat crews landed. The battery was defended by 250 Manchu Tartar troops. They fled for shelter in the neighbouring jungle, but were dislodged by artillery from the Sulphur. After the British captured the forts, the guns were destroyed and the works and magazines blown up.^[3]^[4]

Bremer reported 15 or 20 Tartars killed. One British seaman from the Wellesley died from wounds after being shot through the lungs with grapeshot.^[3]^[5]^[6] Bremer resigned the command of the land forces to Maj. Gen. Hugh Gough, who joined the fleet on board the Cruizer.^[3] Former Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu wrote in his diary entry for 2 March: "I hear that the English rebel ships have already forced their way to the fort at Lieh-te. Early in the morning I went to talk things over at the General Office in the Monastery of the Giant Buddha."^[7]

Notes

Footnotes

↑ Junk River lies between Whampoa and Junk Island, a long narrow strip of land north-east of Whampoa.^[2]

Citations

1 2 Ouchterlony 1844, p. 120
↑ Hall & Bernard 1846, pp. 123–124
1 2 3 4 Bulletins of State Intelligence 1841, p. 348
↑ Bingham 1842, pp. 73–74
↑ Hall & Bernard 1846, p. 131
↑ Belcher 1843, p. 158
↑ Waley 1958, p. 141

References

Bulletins of State Intelligence. Westminster: F. Watts. 1841.
Belcher, Edward (1843). Narrative of a Voyage Round the World. Volume 2. London: Henry Colburn.
Bingham, John Elliot (1842). Narrative of the Expedition to China, from the Commencement of the War to Its Termination in 1842 (2nd ed.). Volume 2. London: Henry Colburn.
Hall, William Hutcheon; Bernard, William Dallas (1846). The Nemesis in China (3rd ed.). London: Henry Colburn.
Ouchterlony, John (1844). The Chinese War. London: Saunders and Otley.
Waley, Arthur (1958). The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0611-5.

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